


Storm Clouds

by wintersjackson



Series: Urban Magic RWBY [8]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-31
Updated: 2014-12-31
Packaged: 2018-03-04 14:13:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3071114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wintersjackson/pseuds/wintersjackson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yang and her housemate catch up over Weiss’s enormous reward fee for her rescue. Somewhere far below, dark gears are grinding into position.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Storm Clouds

Yang all but fell through the door as her keys twisted in the lock, and she once again truly wished that this would be the last time it happened. Technically the contract prevented any staff from working double shifts more than one day a week, but she’d made it clear to Junior early on that she wouldn’t tell if he didn’t. She got disapproving looks from some of the other staff members, but when the Malachites were busy and Junior was talking business Yang could wrangle the entire club into shape on her own, and everyone tended to work a little happier with her around. So, double shifts were often the least of her problems.

She was mildly surprised to come across her housemate in the kitchen, working his way through a large bowl of cereal and browsing his smartphone with his other hand. He raised the spoon in greeting, but continued chewing his mouthful as she thankfully slumped into a seat.

She wasn’t sure quite where Ren had sprung from. Anyone their age living in a three storey house with a wine cellar had clearly been doing something right, but as far as she could tell he only lived in three rooms. She and Ruby had been given free reign, and only really taken the ground floor no matter how much they tried to spread out. From anyone else in the world Yang would have been waiting for fineprint the length of Ulysses after being given lodging indefinitely for near nothing, but Yang had known him a few years online and had found no evidence at all so far to doubt her conclusion: The man just didn’t care about physical belongings. 

Finally setting his spoon down he smiled, nodding past her at the counter.  
“How was work? Post for you is on the counter.” Yang groaned something in conformation and reached out for the box of cereal and a bowl in reach, weighing out the cost and reward of getting back up for milk before deciding it wasn’t worth it.  
“I’ll get it when I wake up,” she mumbled and he chuckled in response, the interaction somewhat familiar to both of them. His unexpected offer of housing in the city after months of increasingly frantic admittance to him of her home state had completely changed the course of Yang’s life, or so it felt, and for all his casualness she still felt fully in her friend’s debt. Figuratively, at least.  
Which brought her to something she’d been meaning to do for a while.  
“So, uh,” she started and immediately stumbled on, which had him glancing up. “Ruby’s going to be asleep until the evening, and I’ll be okay once I get an hour or two of sleep, so...want to go see a movie or something after lunch? Or, uh, actual lunch, I guess.”  
He looked a little surprised, slipping his phone into a pocket and looking at her directly.  
“Sorry, Yang, I’m taking Nora to a concert in the next State for a few days and we’re leaving before then. Its our anniversary and I wanted to do something nice.”  
Yang cringed, trying not to let on quite how crushing that had felt, and sank back into her seat. Well, that was why she’d been putting it off. The guy was hard to put a pin on, often out of the house or disappearing for a few days but never seeming to actually work, but she’d secretly hoping his time with the tiny valkyrie was just something friendly. So much for that.

The silence started to stretch as Yang searched for a response that didn’t sound disappointed or spiteful, and she quickly nabbed the letters off the surface as an excuse. It was all paperwork and she guessed they’d be sitting in awkward silence until he left-but the second letter changed all that.  
She stared at the typing, dumbfounded, and slowly felt her hands begin to shake. She tried to get to her feet, lips opening and closing silently, and nearly stumbled to the floor before a strong pair of hands suddenly gripped her shoulders, helping her stumble to the sofa where she collapsed, staring at the wall. Ren carefully picked up the letter from where she had dropped it, scanning the contents with a practiced eye. A banker’s note, and for a moment he felt a pang of sympathy for whatever demand they were making for her this time. But he was not expecting the polite, careful admittance in the center of the page.

“Forty thousand dollars?” He asked tonelessly, glancing at where Yang was still staring at him in equal shock. “Transferred from one of the primary Schnee company accounts...’as a token of the family’s gratitude’? That’s...You think it’s to do with Weiss?”  
She’d admitted most of her goings-on with the Heiress to Ren mostly for a source of conversation, though he’d proved his discretion before. She managed to regain a little control, swallowing the lump in her throat and shaking her head slightly.  
“I may have slightly rescued her from a kidnapping,” she croaked. Ren looked over the letter at her for a few seconds, expression questioning, before handing the sheet of paper back and shaking his head with amazement.  
“Well, if you’re okay staying up a little longer, I’ve still got plenty of time to drive you to your bank to confirm the transfer. We can see about shifting most of it into accounts with higher interest, paying off any outstanding costs and loans. Even with all that done, you’re going to be set for living costs for years even if you quit junior’s right now.”  
He saw the slow tensing in her arms, that note of caution as she worked up the courage to ask. He smiled before she could, digging out his phone and turning for the door.  
“If this was a regular thing, we may have to sort out some rent!” He carefully didn’t look around when she sighed in relief, but paused at the door, glancing back at the stunned girl.  
“Oh, by the way...anything interesting you picked up last night?”

It was a moment’s struggle to remember with a five-digit bank balance staring back at her, but she tried to drag up anything interesting. It had been the only thing Ren had asked as payment for his help, something she assumed was linked to the data analysis he’d explained he’d made his fortune from.  
“Oh, yeah... uh, Wild Hunt is apparently assembling on the other side of the state, some minor Fae lord tried to buy the Malachites off us before Junior sent him on his way, and -get this- there’s apparently a Fae with metal hands thats been seen a few times in the spirit slums. I’d call it bullshit, but this guy swore it on the styx.”  
She shrugged her indifference on the matter and he nodded his agreement. He mumbled something about brushing his teeth and wandered down the hall towards the stairs.

And nearly collapsed against the bannister, heart racing. This couldn’t be it, surely, after all this time-but Yang was in the very heart of rumour territory at her job, and he’d idly hoped since he set it up he might get something, but this?  
He hit the number on his phone with shaking fingers as he rushed upstairs, speaking as soon as the other person picked up.  
“Elbrus, it’s me. I’ve found her. She’s in the city.”

~

The sound of teeth cracking bone, while not particularly loud, had a quality to it that filled the cavern. Roman kept his eyes firmly on the wall, and away from the source of the noise-and the smell.  
“This is what I pay for accepting a free lunch,” he muttered to himself in what he felt was a witty fashion. The woman who’d come to his mansion-which was the size it was because he wanted it to be comfy, not drafty-had been wonderfully respectful and awed by his vast height and influence -and they were absolutely not platform shoes, that was a cruel rumour spread by jealous rivals- and he had, at long last, deigned to sponsor her endeavour. It was only some time after that he had realised she hadn’t really told him her name, who she represented, or even what he was putting his forces behind. So when she’d finally called him to her hideout, far beneath the city, he’d been expecting red carpets and attendants and praise.

Instead he’d had to crawl four hundred feet down a winding chimney cut into the stone, and then had to wait in this chamber with the one gorging herself in the corner.  
On what appeared to be the corpse of a Cave troll, he idly noted. “Knocking out the competition for the beauty pageant?” He called as he, despite his best intentions, wandered over.  
She whirled, hissing, as he got too close. he could have sworn he felt the wave of miasma corroding his suit.  
“Yeesh, alright, keep him, though the troll’s still winning,” he muttered as he went to go complain at the other end of the cave. Before he’d made any distance however the stone on a risen lump began to glow and bubble, an immaculate figure rising out of the molten rock and stepping daintily down. Even from a distance, Roman could feel the magma threatening to combust his clothes. He coughed and waved some of the heat away as Cinder tittered prettily at him and walked over. He had to keep backing up, the heat still coming off her in waves far beyond uncomfortable.

“No plus one, my lord?” She asked lightly when he stopped, back pressed against the wall, and he huffed with annoyance.  
“ ‘Junior’ has no respect or loyalty to anyone. No-one’s going to bring him around, I promise you.”  
She gave an unconvinced murmur and glanced at her nails, still glowing a soft red from the heat.  
“Not even any of his men? I hear they come rather cheap.”  
“None, and with good reason. Those homunculi are worth less than those suits he buys them. Trust me, I found a spirit far more worthy of our money. Cunning, ruthless, has already proved her credentials earlier this month-and is quite happy to be seen and not heard.”  
He let his blunt teeth bare in a satisfied smile, and Cinder’s brow lowered slowly in a calculating look.  
“I call her Neo.”


End file.
